The Use Of Case Particles By Tertiary-Level Chinese JFL Learners

Case particle is a category of function words of great importance in the Japanese language, serving to exhibit the complicated relationship between verbs and nouns. The fact that there is considerable literature on case particle shows its importance. Due to the multiple uses of a single case particle as well as different case particles assuming similar functions, which naturally adds up to the confusion, the use of case particles remains one of the perennial problems for Japanese learners.In SLA, research on case particle use was mainly conducted in Japan. The existing research usually shows that the use of case particles poses great difficulties for Japanese-as-a-second/foreign-language (JSL/JFL) learners, and it is affected by such factors as L1, the semantic category of verbs and so on. There are few studies dealing with the use of case particles systematically. Most investigations have focused on a few uses of one or two case particles. Moreover, research seldom aims at revealing the similarities and differences of case particle uses among learners of various levels, much less at describing and exploring the case particle use strategies adopted by learners and their correspondent efficiencies.Given the background as reviewed, the present study attempted to give a comprehensive description of the case particle use by university students who majored in Japanese, with the employment of two interrelated and complementary data-collecting methods. The study was intended to exhibit the overall condition of the students’ case particle use under test conditions, the similarities and differences among learners of diverse levels, the factors that affect the accuracy of their case particle use, and their strategies in case particle use. It was intended todisplay, through a cloze test for students of different grades, an overall picture of their case particle use, the similarities and differences of case particle use by learners of different levels, and the factors that may influence the accuracy of case particle use. It was also intended to move on to reveil the strategies adopted by learners and their efficiencies correspondently, through the method of retrospective interviews with14selected students after the cloze test.The present study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. The quantitative analysis revealed the similarities and differences in case particle use between learners’of different levels and between factors that influence the accuracy of case particle use, while the qualitative analysis centered on analyzing the leaners’self-reports and compares learners of different levels, for the purpose of exploring the learners’cognitive process and strategy use with regard to case particle use.Data analysis yields the following findings:1. The overall accuracy rate of case particle use by university Japanese majors is about70%, and there is a huge imbalance between uses of different case particles. Moreover, the accuracy of the same case particle use varies with the verbs it collocates with. This shows that learners might be familiar with certain collocations and certain usages but have not achieved full command of the use of a case particle.1) The Chinese JFL learners make remarkable progress in their case particle use over the four years in college. However, the use of different case particles follows different development paths across the four years. This shows the complexity of the Japanese case particle system.2) The misuse of case particles by JFL learners of different levels showed great similarities. That is to say, the difficult points of case particle use are relatively similar to all learners, and these points should be emphasized in classroom instructions.2. The accuracy rate of case particle use was affected by some linguistic factors.1) The accuracy rate was affected by the type of case particles. The accuracy rate of obligatory case particle use was significantly lower than that of optional case particle use. This can be attributed to the fact that most optional case particle can be translated into Chinese, but most obligatory case particle can not.2) The accuracy rate was not inversely proportional to the difficulty level of verbs. That is, the students may achieve a high accuracy rate of case particle use if the particle collocates with a verb of a difficult level but a low accuracy rate if it collocates with a verb of an easy level. Easy verbs as high frequency words tend to collocate with various case particles in various contexts. As a result, their collocations may be difficult to learn. In contrast, difficult verbs tend to collocate with fewer case particles in fewer contexts, and their collocations may be easier to learn.3) The accuracy rate was affected by the type of verb’s voice. The accuracy rate of the case particle which relates to causative voice is the highest, and that relates to active voice is the lowest. The possible reason is that the sentence patterns of causative and passive voice are limited in range and therefore easier to learn, but those of active voice are broad in range and therefore harder to remember.3. The students used different strategies in selecting case particles and their use of strategies had some special features.1) Five categories of case particle selection strategies were found to be applied by the learners:Applying rules, Translating into L1, Retrieving formulaic sequences from memory, Turning to language feel and Drawing analogy.2) In terms of frequency, Applying rules was the most frequently used strategy, and its proportion was65%. In terms of efficiency, Translating into L1was the most efficient strategy, and the accuracy rate as a result of its usage was82%.3) High-level learners were found to use Turning to language feel strategy more frequently and use Translating into LI strategy less frequently than intermediate-level learners. As to the efficiency of strategy use, high-level learner did better than intermediate-level learners in all kinds of strategies.The findings of the present study enrich the existing literature on case particle use, and thus have some theoretical and pedagogical implications. Theoretically, the findings confirm that the positive transfer of L1in SLA does exist, though on many occasions it brings in negative transfer. The study sheds light on the theoretical categorization of case particles. Methodologically, the combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis helps to reveal the development path of learners’case particle use and reveal the factors that will affect the accuracy rate of case particle use, and this undoubtedly will contribute to SLA research. Pedagogically, the present study confirms the complexity of case particle use, and will be of some help to the teaching of case particles. Enough attention should be paid to the over-reliance on rules and the insufficient use of formulaic sequences in case particle instruction henceforth.